The Role of Jews in the Palestine Solidarity Movement

Under the auspices of Deir Yassin Remembered (www.deiryassin.org), this writer gave a presentation at Ibrahim’s Bi-monthly Salon Event in Seattle, Washington entitled “The Role of Jews in the Palestine Solidarity Movement”. Beginning with a personal introduction of Jewish influence in local peace groups, the talk expanded into six main subtopics:

1. A description of how difficult it was to convince Michigan Peaceworks (then called Ann Arbor Area Committee for Peace) to adopt a position on Palestine. It was noted that the group formed right after the attacks of September 11, 2001, and that U.S. support for Israel was prominent among the reasons stated for the attack, yet the topic kept slipping off the table. After membership passed a rather tepid resolution, the Jewish-led leadership of Michigan Peaceworks promptly eliminated the membership, a relationship that exists to this day.

2. A visual depiction of the “Twin Pillars”: a description of the Jewish community as a viable and worthy target for protest, and the unique position and responsibility of Jewish peace activists to lead the peace movement in criticism of that community.

3. Reaching the precipice: A point of view that describes the short journey of a Jewish peace activist. First, the entry in the Palestine peace movement, motivated by a humanist concern, then the shock when he/she realizes that for Palestine to live, Israel must die. See article by Richard Hugus here.

4. Becoming the gate keeper: Not being able to then bring him/herself to the decision that peace and a Jewish-supremacist state cannot coexist, the Jewish activist becomes an effective gate-keeper, who prevents other voices – like ours – from being heard. Examples were given of Jews becoming leaders in the movement, then using that leadership to discourage and silence those who identify and challenge Jewish power.

5. An interpretation of the teachings of Malcolm X, who explained the role of whites in the black nationalist movement of the sixties. He was clear that sincere whites could not join his Organization of Afro-American Unity, but should work separately from fellow blacks by confronting the racism that exists in the white community. Likewise the role of Jews is not to exert control over Palestine solidarity groups, but to expose and challenge the racism that exists within the Jewish community.

6. A reading of DYR Director Paul Eisen’s words: “The crime against the Palestinian people is being committed by a Jewish state with Jewish soldiers using weapons displaying Jewish religious symbols, and with the full support and complicity of the overwhelming mass of organized Jews worldwide. But to name Jews as responsible for this crime seems impossible to do.”

Note: this event was filmed by Bill Alford’s Moral Politics TV. He advises that Scan-TV will cablecast the presentation on February 18th at 8:30 pm PST and can be viewed only at that time. Scan-TV technology has yet to implement video-on-demand. Bill has sent a physical DVD of the talk, however. If interested in a copy, please contact this writer

Egypt Inextricably Linked to Israel

Largely missing from mainstream media coverage of the resignation of Hosni Mubarak is the crucial explanation of the central role that Israel state plays in the human rights violations of the Egyptian people. Our friend Alison Weir, President of the Council for the National Interest, explains this important connection in “Egypt, the US and the Israel Lobby”, found on Counterpunch:

Advance Notice

Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends will hold our second open forum, which will be a panel discussion with Q&A about our weekly vigils, open to the public and moderated by the president of the local chapter of Veterans for Peace. The Ann Arbor District Library’s Mallets Creek Branch will be the location for this March 29th event at 7:00 – 9:00 pm. More information will be available in future reports.

Eight Vigilers on Jan. 22nd
Seven Vigilers on Jan. 29th
Nine Vigilers on Feb. 5th
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
Comments on this report? Submit them @ https://blog.deiryassin.org/?p=423

The Three Greatest Crimes

Four members of Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends attended Martin Luther King Day celebrations in Detroit this past week, which included a fiery speech by Willie “Mukasa” Ricks and a march through downtown Detroit. Ricks was introduced by our friend Abayomi Azkikiwe (Pan African News Wire and Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality), who reminisced how impressed he was with this then youth from the 60’s and the Black Power struggle against war and imperialism in the South. Ricks advanced the slogan “Black Power” and pushed the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee to raise it.

Ricks’ enthusiastic presentation was well received by his audience, especially when he unexpectedly addressed the topic of the “evils” of Zionism. Readers are invited to listen to Ricks’ speech at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDM42JRxqS0 , from which we now quote (16:15 into the video):

The three greatest crimes that ever happened to the human race: What they did to the Native Americans here, the natives of this land, the genocide; the slave trade, the rape of Africa and robbing us out of Africa and scattering us all over the world; and what they’re doing to the Palestinians right before our very eyes. And I want you to know they made up that country “Israel”. That’s not “Israel”, that’s Palestine, that’s Palestine. And the Zionists and the Zionist movement is an evil movement. They do nothing but tell lies and trick people – and trick, trick, trick. They own ABC, CBS, the magazines and they got us under censorship. And they keep us from knowing the truth, not just about Palestine, but even about ourselves. We are under 100% censorship.

Helen Thomas, move over; we have a new “kid” on the block!

JWPF Members Get Published

… and speaking of Helen Thomas, Vigilers M and G responded to an Oakland Press editorial critical of her, and at the same time promoted our vigils in their letter published Thursday in the local A2Journal.com web-and-print newspaper:

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

“Published editorial was insensitive, superficial”

As members of Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends, we cannot agree with A2 Journal’s insensitive, superficial, cookie-cutter editorial (from The Oakland Press) in the Dec. 30 paper vilifying the extraordinarily capable, fearless nonagenarian, Helen Thomas.

JWPF has been holding vigils in front of Ann Arbor’s Beth Israel Congregation every Saturday morning for seven years in every kind of weather, holding nicely-printed signs reminding drivers going by –who now give us thumbs up nine-tenths of the time — and synagogue-goers — who don’t — of Israel’s barbaric treatment of the Palestinians.
(The editorial stated) that one of Thomas’s “blatantly anti-Semitic” comments was that “Zionists own the White House, Hollywood and Wall Street.” You left out the one most important group that is owned by the Zionists. She actually said “Congress, the White House and Hollywood, Wall Street are owned by Zionists.”

… see full article below signature or click here

Religious Freedom Day Q&A

The following link will take you to the Q&A following last week’s meeting at the Ann Arbor District Library. The vigils were misrepresented by the speakers, with no input allowed from members and supporters of JWPF, as reported last week. At the time of Imam Dawud Walid’s comment that “nine times out of ten, [passing traffic] will find you uncouth”, I raised my hand to correct him. AADL Director Josie Parker physically grabbed my hand and lowered it. We vigillers observe that, of the drivers who offer an opinion, nine out of ten actually support us with thumbs up, smiles, and waves, but the audience was spared this inconvenient testimony. Indeed, last week a passing motorist parked his car and walked up to thank us for our presence.

http://www.zshare.net/audio/85219752a79b79ce/

Local Peace Activist Passes

Gordon Crawford was a downtown Ann Arbor presence, a one-time Beth Israel vigiler and a regular attendee at the Saturday noon anti-war protest, which many JWPF members attend. Gordon was an intelligent man, a history buff, and an incredibly gentle person. He came to this writer’s aid when a local Zionist bully attempted to instigate a fight, and he always had a good word for his fellow protesters. He would also be seen attending the “other game in town”, the weekday 5:30 protest at the Federal Building.

Gordon was a fine man, and will be missed.

Will you worship God or the State?
Seven vigilers
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
Comments on this report? Submit them @https://blog.deiryassin.org/?p=417

Letter to the editor: Published editorial was insensitive, superficial

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

As members of Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends, we cannot agree with A2 Journal’s insensitive, superficial, cookie-cutter editorial (from The Oakland Press) in the Dec. 30 paper vilifying the extraordinarily capable, fearless nonagenarian, Helen Thomas.

JWPF has been holding vigils in front of Ann Arbor’s Beth Israel Congregation every Saturday morning for seven years in every kind of weather, holding nicely-printed signs reminding drivers going by –who now give us thumbs up nine-tenths of the time — and synagogue-goers — who don’t — of Israel’s barbaric treatment of the Palestinians.

(The editorial stated) that one of Thomas’s “blatantly anti-Semitic” comments was that “Zionists own the White House, Hollywood and Wall Street.” You left out the one most important group that is owned by the Zionists. She actually said “Congress, the White House and Hollywood, Wall Street are owned by Zionists.”

Nearly 100 percent of the 435 members of the House of Representatives and the 100 senators, with the exceptions, perhaps, of Ron Paul and a very few others, always support Israel, right or wrong, as dictated by the Zionist Lobby, AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which threatens them effectively with defeat if they don’t vote as AIPAC directs.

Congress members’ assistants have been heard to say at meetings that some members actually have AIPAC write their speeches for them regarding Israel/Palestine.

You ask, “What does that have to do with Israel?” And then you say, “People can criticize the politics of Israel as they do the politics in the United States and not be pegged as bigots.” Ha! The politics of Israel is Zionism. It’s not the kind views of the many Jews who help the Palestinians pick their olives at harvest time, refuse to participate in horrendous aggression against Palestinian villages, or work on rebuilding Palestinian homes that are constantly being bulldozed 24/7 by American-made Israeli bulldozers.

Mustafa Barghouti, the Palestinian Minister of Information during the short-lived Palestinian coalition government in 2007, estimated three years ago that over 60,000 Palestinian homes had been fully or partially demolished by Israeli bulldozers. As children, Jews were always taught that Jewishness means being moral and ethical.

To show that the views expressed or not expressed by White House bigwigs are strictly repeats of the Israeli lobby’s “Israel right or wrong” philosophy, did President Barack Obama or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ever express one word of castigation of Israel over its massacre of Gaza during December 2008 to January 2009?

Imagine the Israelis slaughtering close to 1,400 innocent civilians and using white phosphorus grenades, with a burning temperature of 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit, on Gazan adults and children without a word of complaint from America.

The editorial forgot to mentions that although Helen Thomas was born in Winchester, Ky., her parents immigrated from Lebanon, which Israel viciously attacked in 1982 and again in 2006, when it turned to rubble so much of the country that had built itself up to be the Paris of the Middle East. The feeling of extraordinary hurt is ever with a person whose country of origin is intensely violated.

But Zionism refuses to recognize any kind of Nakba (catastrophe) of the Palestinians. In fact, Zionists in this country and Israel believe in a revised history — really a mythology — of the Palestinians, as is summed up, for example, in a short, 103-page book, “History Upside Down: The Roots of Palestinian Fascism and the Myth of Israeli Aggression” by David Meir-Levi, a David Horowitz Freedom Center Book.

They don’t believe in al Nakba, the recognized butchery of Palestinian villages by Jewish gangs in 1948 at the time of Israel’s founding. In fact, prominent Zionists a year ago begged U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to remove the word Nakba from the U.N.’s lexicon.

They don’t think the small Palestinian village of Deir Yassin was massacred. They believe whole-heartedly that Egypt started the 1967 Six-Day War, when it was clearly Israel, with its vast repository of weaponry and its war-mongering leaders. They have a queer notion that there were no in-bred Palestinians — they were brought in from other countries; and, in fact, they do not recognize that the Palestinians are occupied.

Most of all, as is true if one listens to Israeli analyses these days of Israeli/Palestinian conflicts, Israel is always the victim, even with its 3 billion dollars a year of the most sophisticated U.S. weaponry. One only has to compare the scholarship of recent books documenting Palestine/Israel history, which Meir-Levi calls “mythology,” such as the three-volume series by Alan Hart, “Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews” or Ilan Pappe’s “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine” to discern the truth.

And the editorial absurdly compares Thomas’ simple words to Al-Qaeda as far as promoting peace is concerned. Would she consider throwing acid in the face of a woman for showing a tiny patch of skin or keep girls from going to school or woman from working? Helen Thomas, for years and years a supporter of ethnic diversity, is a long-time inductee into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame and deserves all the honors that can be bestowed upon her.

H and M

Pittsfield Township

Rabbi Dobrusin Hijacks Religious Freedom Day Panel

Sensing a setup, twelve members and supporters of Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends attended a panel discussion on Religious Freedom Day. And while some of us, including this writer, anticipated that panelist Rabbi Rob Dobrusin would merely hint at our vigils in front of his synagogue, we were mistaken. He utilized all his allotted time to bash our non-violent, silent and very effective vigils, while neither we, nor our supporters were permitted a single chance at rebuttal. This must have been particularly galling to the ACLU panel member, who rightly advocated free speech, and more free speech.

PeaceMonger listened to the recorded words of Rabbi Dobrusin, and has provided us with an exceptional analysis of his presentation. PM’s full report is reprinted after signature, and readers can follow the link to it here. It begins:

Inspired by incidents of anti-Muslim violence, it was billed as part of celebrating Religious Freedom Day but Rabbi Robert Dobrusin of Beth Israel Congregation (BIC) hijacked the panel discussion on Thursday at the Ann Arbor District Library. One of the featured panelists, Dobrusin bemoaned “an extremely unpleasant situation” and launched into a diatribe against the weekly vigils of Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends despite his admission that “our religious freedom has not been threatened, it has not been limited” and “no one has ever been physically prevented from entering our building”.

Dobrusin was long on generalities but short on specifics. He admits that JWPF is “expressing an opinion at odds with deeply held feelings of a majority of our members”. This gives the lie to the claim sometimes made by vigil critics that many or most of the congregants agree with JWPF’s criticisms of Israel but that the problem is mainly with JWPF’s tactics. Dobrusin then proceeds to claim that JWPF misrepresents the “relationship” and “connection which our congregation … feels with the State of Israel.” Yet, Dobrusin’s charge of misrepresentation is bald-faced with nothing to support it.
He follows with the claim that JWPF “has endeavored … to publicize its message against the legitimacy of Israel and against any negotiated settlement based a two-state solution”. This falsehood is not new.

… [see full text below signature]

A Comment Unanswered

We knew that our ability to enter into a discussion was to be shortchanged as soon as Thursday’s event organizers decided to offer Q&A only though the submission of note cards. Chuck Warpehoski of the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice acted as efficiently as an Israeli checkpoint soldier to make sure none of the questions JWPF submitted were put to the panel. One silenced comment came from Vigil Supporter E, a Palestinian refugee living in Ann Arbor since 1969. We now print a slightly edited version for our readers to review:

I had wished this meeting would have concentrated on living up to the ideal of “religious freedom, tolerance, and respect”, as promised on the ICPJ website. So I felt disappointed that Rabbi Dobrusin used his time on the panel to vent his angry feelings instead of truthfully reporting what is happening in Israel. He could have told the audience that Israel disrespects the religious freedoms of Muslims, so that most worshippers of Islam cannot even travel to Jerusalem to pray in the Al-Aqsa Mosque. He could also have used his time to introduce the topic of human rights and report how many Muslims are killed by Israel. Instead of criticizing the vigils, he could have praised them for raising awareness of the sad crimes that Israel commits. Some of the speakers talked about active listening. I wish that Rabbi Dobrusin was listening to the voices of those who stand vigil, but their voices were not heard Thursday evening. As a religious father, Rabbi Dobrusin can and should listen to the voices of those who have traveled to Palestine, and he could have lived up to the event’s stated goals and achieved a worthy respect of members of Ann Arbor’s religious community.

Double Digit Vigil

The joint was jumpin’ on Jan. 8th as JWPF placed eleven activists on Washtenaw Avenue demanding justice for Palestine. Our numbers included a return visit from Vigillers E and P, and two young supporters. Thanks to all!

Praying for Genocide is Not Worship
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
Comments on this report? Submit them @ https://blog.deiryassin.org/?p=409
#

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Rabbi Dobrusin Hijacks Religious Freedom Day Panel

Inspired by incidents of anti-Muslim violence, it was billed as part of celebrating Religious Freedom Day but Rabbi Robert Dobrusin of Beth Israel Congregation (BIC) hijacked the panel discussion on Thursday at the Ann Arbor District Library. One of the featured panelists, Dobrusin bemoaned “an extremely unpleasant situation” and launched into a diatribe against the weekly vigils of Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends despite his admission that “our religious freedom has not been threatened, it has not been limited” and “no one has ever been physically prevented from entering our building”.

Dobrusin was long on generalities but short on specifics. He admits that JWPF is “expressing an opinion at odds with deeply held feelings of a majority of our members”. This gives the lie to the claim sometimes made by vigil critics that many or most of the congregants agree with JWPF’s criticisms of Israel but that the problem is mainly with JWPF’s tactics. Dobrusin then proceeds to claim that JWPF misrepresents the “relationship” and “connection which our congregation … feels with the State of Israel.” Yet, Dobrusin’s charge of misrepresentation is bald-faced with nothing to support it.

He follows with the claim that JWPF “has endeavored … to publicize its message against the legitimacy of Israel and against any negotiated settlement based a two-state solution”. This falsehood is not new.

Regardless of the varying positions individual JWPF members may have, as I wrote in 2007, “In fact, JWPF has never taken a group position on the legitimacy of Israel.” Likewise, the group has never taken a position opposing a “two-state solution.” In March, 2007, JWPF approved the following statement:
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends have been asked what it would take for us to end our vigils at the Beth Israel Congregation (BIC).

Our answer is simple and well within the power of BIC. We would end our vigils at BIC if the Board of Directors of BIC publicly states its full support for the following principles that basic human rights require:
1. The full civil and political equality of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel within Israel;
2. The prompt implementation of the rights of Palestinian refugees of 1947-8 and 1967 to return to their homes and properties in Israel and Palestine as stipulated in UN resolution 194; and,
3. The prompt end of Israeli occupation and colonization of all lands seized by Israel in 1967.
Although we are not all Jewish, we hold that inequality, the forced exile of millions of Palestinians, and military occupation are inconsistent with the highest ideals of Judaism.

Following his misrepresentation of JWPF’s position on Israel, Dobrusin says: “Now, the question is if we express our opinions … are we accountable for what it is we believe? Can people disagree with us or should we be able to hide behind the walls of our synagogue and say this is our opinion and it can’t be debated?”

Dobrusin answers his question in the negative claiming “if we want to have respectful discussion … we can have respectful discussion … surely that can happen.” So, why is it that more than seven years ago the request of JWPF founder Henry Herskovitz, who regarded BIC as his spiritual home and regularly attended High Holy Day services there, to address the congregation, not at Sabbath services but on a week night evening, was denied?

In more than seven years, why haven’t Henry and JWPF ever been invited in for the debate Dobrusin says he welcomes? The answer is, apparently, because JWPF’s non-violent exercise of their own Constitutionally protected rights, which Dobrusin grudgingly admits is legal, feels “to us as harassment”.

Dobrusin also claims that the signs JWPF members hold outside BIC are “often quite simply untrue.” This is a tacit admission that at least sometimes they are true. Moreover, as before, Dobrusin’s claims are simply unsubstantiated. What signs are untrue, Rabbi? Let’s debate that.

Dobrusin talks about how “restrained,” at his behest, the congregants have been in responding to the “harassment” of JWPF. “We don’t want physical or verbal on the street outside the synagogue,” he says.

This would have been a nice time to acknowledge that the only people ever investigated or arrested by police in connection with the protests were a Beth Israel congregant, Eli Avny (Assault with a Deadly Weapon), and a guest, Abraham Seligman (Assault and Battery). It would also have been an opportune moment for Chuck Warpehoski to make a belated apology for the fact that the organization he heads, the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice, never took a stand against the violence directed at JWPF members but that probably wouldn’t be good for business.

Dobrusin concludes his presentation with a plea for people to support BIC and speak out against JWPF’s vigils. Dobrusin frames his plea by saying:

The point I want to stress this evening is really the one with the most importance. You know in the long-run this isn’t a Beth Israel issue. And it isn’t a Jewish community issue. And it isn’t an issue about Middle East politics. It’s an Ann Arbor issue. The atmosphere and peace of our entire community is tarnished when people feel tension as they approach their house of worship on their holy day … as long as this type of action continues the spiritual atmosphere and the sense of comfort and peace of our community is severely damaged and that’s truly a shame for all of us. (emphasis added)

What’s clear from this is that Rabbi Dobrusin is no student of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Here’s something the Rev. King had to say in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” about “tension” and “peace”:

… I am not afraid of the word “tension.” … there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood.

No doubt it was men like Rabbi Dobrusin whom the Rev. King had in mind when he lamented the one “who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods … ‘ ”

Rabbi Dobrusin wants us to believe that the violent Jewish supremacist state that he and his congregation support is not the real issue.

Forget that when Israel turned Lebanon into a “free-fire zone” in 2006, BIC responded by publishing on their web site a photo of four Israeli flags along with a statement of support for the “people of the State of Israel at this time of crisis” and stating that “We pray for the safety of those who defend Israel …”

Forget that Rabbi Dobrusin wrote in the Ann Arbor News: “Beth Israel Congregation affirms without any hesitation or equivocation the legitimacy of the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish state, and affirms the right of Israel to defend itself from enemies who seek its destruction.”

Forget that BIC sends their young children to Israel and poses them for photos with armed Israeli soldiers.

Forget that Rabbi Dobrusin has offered a halachic justification of torture from the bima.

Forget all that. The real issue is the tension and tarnished peace in our community. Oh, the humanity!

Rabbi Dobrusin wants us to believe that “among the institutions which our community must respect is the sanctity of the house of worship.” But Beth Israel’s support for Israel has diminished, if not eradicated, its claim of sanctity. As Abraham Heschel explains:

The prophet knew that religion could distort what the Lord demanded … To the people, religion was Temple, priesthood, incense: “This is the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord” (Jer. 7:4). Such piety Jeremiah brands as fraud and illusion. “Behold you trust in deceptive words to no avail,” he calls (Jer. 7:8). Worship preceded or followed by evil acts becomes an absurdity. The holy place is doomed when people indulge in unholy deeds.

BIC’s support of Jewish supremacism in Palestine is indeed an evil act and an unholy deed. And as the prophet Isaiah (ch. 1) said:

Though you pray at length,
I will not listen.
Your hands are full of blood.

And as the prophet Amos (ch. 5) said to “the House of Israel”:

Ah, you that turn justice to wormwood,
and bring righteousness to the ground! …
They hate the one who reproves in the gate,
and they abhor the one who speaks the truth. …
Hate evil and love good,
and establish justice in the gate …
let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

You can find a 3.1 Mb audio file (.wav) of Dobrusin’s speech here at http://a2vigil.org/video/dobrusinspeech-small.wav.

The article below about DYR Board and Scholarship Committee member Susan Abulhawa and by Lawrence Davidson is reposted from CounterPunch.

When we think of the great struggles of our day we almost always think in terms of movements and groups. There are Communists and Fascists, Capitalists and Socialists, Jews and Muslims, Zionists and Christian Fundamentalists, Democrats and Republicans, Western Civilization and its rivals, ad nauseam. But if you look at how things really work in the world all those groups quickly break down into cliques of real people. For instance, the notion that it is the Zionists (or Israelis) and the Palestinians who now contest in the “Holy Land” is a convenient way of speaking about a struggle that involves millions of people with their competing ideologies, claims to rights and organizational set ups. However, it should never be forgotten that at ground level all of this is carried on by real people, each with their own interests, some more sane than others, but always flesh and blood folks. It is these individuals who are responsible and ought to be held accountable for how their struggles play out. There are, of course, far too many of them for us to know about. But those we can know as individuals, particularly the public advocates, we should pay serious attention to and consider them as representative of their causes. Representative not only as spokespersons, but also as reflections of the causes themselves.

It is in this sense that I present below a brief description of three people, one protagonist and two antagonists. Each of them are unofficial spokespersons involved in the shaping of the West”s popular understanding of Israeli-Palestinian conflict–one of the defining struggles of our time. This contest will help settle not only the fate of the Palestinians and the Israelis, but the future course of U.S. and European relations with the Arab and Muslim worlds. In manner and nature of their arguments, these particular three can be seen as reflecting, for a Western audience, the collective character of their respective causes. They are among the “human faces” we are likely to encounter. Here they are:

1. Susan Abulhawa is a resourceful, principled and talented Palestinian American novelist. She is the daughter of Palestinian Refugees of the 1967 War and spent her youth in Kuwait, Jordan and occupied East Jerusalem, finally settling in the United States. In 2001 she founded Playgrounds for Palestine, an organization that arranges for the construction of playgrounds in Palestine and Lebanese refugee camps.

In 2006 Ms Abulhawa published the novel The Scar of David, which has now been re-titled Mornings in Jenin (Bloomsbury USA, 2010). As she describes it, this is a book of “historic fiction, where fictional characters live through real history.” The work is impeccably researched and moved by a principled objection to all states and institutions that judge human worth by race, religion or other social constructions. It carries the reader through the horrors and sadness of loss and displacement due to just such enforced judgments. In the novel the Palestinians are the victims that grab our sympathy, but Israeli Jews are also recognizable sufferers. They are products of their historical suffering, which they tragically transfer on to Palestinians. In both cases, it is a novel about victims made real and human. The book has been well received worldwide and translated into a many languages. One can fairly say that this novel has become, for many in the West, the most accessible gateway to a conflict that, for all too long, could only be approached through biased newspaper reporting. Yet, due to Ms Abulhawa’s very success, her novel has predictably triggered the wrath of prominent supporters of Israel.

2. Alan Dershowitz was born in 1938 to an Orthodox Jewish family in Brooklyn, N.Y. According to Dershowitz, his father was a religious man who took from Jewish teaching the notion that one should “defend the underdog.” This may have encouraged his son to become a successful defense attorney. This career choice seems also to fit Alan Dershowitz’s personality which is pugnacious. Dershowitz is not just a practicing lawyer. He also holds the Felix Frankfurter professorship of law at Harvard University where he has taught since 1964.

Alan Dershowitz is a strident defender of Israel. Indeed, more than any other issue, it is Israel that brings out the pugnacious side of Dershowitz’s personality. For instance, those who support Palestinian rights and resistance and/or the boycott of Israel, he automatically labels “anti-Semitic bigots who know nothing about the Middle East.” In contrast, President Jimmy Carter once noted that Alan Dershowitz knows nothing about the plight of the Palestinians. Of John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt’s assessment of the role of the Zionist lobby in the U.S., Dershowitz says their position is “one-sided” and these authors are themselves “liars” and “bigots.” Letting his anger get the better of him when it comes to Israel, Dershowitz often employs the tactic of switching subjects. So if a defender of the Palestinians brings up Israeli human rights violations, Dershowitz wants to talk about Arab persecution of homosexuals. He is notorious for trying to shout down opponents and for making satirical asides to the audience. In other words, the famous and successful trial lawyer seems incapable of arguing calmly and objectively about a subject to which he is passionately attached, Israel. Here he has also obviously lost touch with his father’s advice about the defending the underdog.

Among the many folks who have brought out the pugnacious, name-calling side of Alan Dershowitz is Susan Abulhawa. On October 16, 2010 the two found themselves on the same stage at the Boston Book Fair. They were there to discuss their respective novels that deal with Palestine, for Mr. Dershowitz has also written one entitled The Trials of Zion (Grand Central Publishing 2010) which he tells us describes peace coming to the Holy Land only to be sabotaged by Muslim fanatics. Due to Dershowitz’s essential pugnacity he proved incapable of sparing Ms Abulhawa, or the audience, the darker side of his nature. Because Mornings in Jenin depicts the Palestinians as having rights taken away from them by Zionist Jews, Deshowitz was soon labeling Abulahawa an “extremist” and her book a “barrier to peace.”

3. Bernard-Henri Levy is a French philosopher and journalist. He was born in 1948 to a wealthy family of colons in Algeria who are also Sephardic Jews. Levy grew up in France after his family left Algeria along with most of the pre-independence European community. One can surmise that Levy’s family background left him with a distaste for Arab society and a strong Eurocentric preference. This has translated into an equally strong support for Israel.

As is the case with Alan Dershowitz, the Israel that Levy supports is an idealized state that is hard to recognize if your are not a true believer in the Zionist paradigm. Thus, in his recent essay, “The Antisemitism to Come,” Levy insists that Israel is “the sole democracy in the Middle East.” What of Turkey and Lebanon? They are invisible to Levy. He goes on to assert that Israel is “the only state in the region where political differences can be solved by compromise.” The fact that 20% of Israel’s population (the non-Jewish part) has an historically demonstrated zero chance of a compromise settlement of its differences with the discriminatory policies of the state is, apparently, not part of Levy’s conception of things. Criticism of Israel based on these and other problems is interpreted by him as “the demonization of Israel.” It must be so, because, in Levy’s world the problems do not exist and Israel’s leaders and Jewish population are open to “any and all concessions.” Thus, the critics must be motivated by something other than genuine grievances. Their real motivation must be “the most irrational, the craziest, and the most rabid of hatreds.” Levy, and Dershowitz too, are good examples of the fact that intelligence in one sphere of life does not prevent the failure of intelligence in another.

And who does Levy include among the irrational and crazy haters of Israel? Well, for one, he points to Susan Abulhawa and her novel, Mornings in Jenin. For most reviewers Abulhawa’s novel is a “fine” and “unforgettable” story (The Independent UK 8 March 2010). For Levy it is “a concentration of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish cliches masquerading as fiction.” Did he actually read the book? If he did, he was incapable of getting past the fact that his heros were heros no longer. When it comes to Israel there is really no debate for Levy and Dershowitz. There can be no criticism, no censure, that is not essentially anti-Semitic. They can get away with this sort of malignant reductionism because the balance of power is presently on their side.

Susan Abulhawa has successfully stood up to both these men. She has told Alan Dershowitz, to his face, that his behavior is “unbecoming of a Harvard Professor.” And, in the Huffington Post, she tells Levy that his irresponsible use of the term anti-Semitism “besmirches the memory of those who were murdered in death camps solely for being Jewish.” One can add here, so does the Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians solely because they are not Jewish.

The behavior of those who claim to represent and/or defend a cause is often a small window into the nature of those causes. It is interesting to note that most of those in the West who serve as spokespersons for the Palestinians are recognizably rational and analytical. That does not mean they are without passion, but it does mean that they have a grasp on reality. They do not advocate “kicking the Jews into the sea,” but rather they fight for Palestinian rights so that the Israelis cannot kick the indigenous population of the “Holy Land” into bantustans. And, like Susan Abulhawa, they base their claims of Palestinian rights on the broader claims of human rights. In contrast, the spokespersons in the West for Israel, such as Alan Dershowitz and Bernard-Henri Levy, are often incapable of rational debate. They quickly retreat to name-calling–their favorite epithet being “anti-Semite.” They are not very analytical either for, when it comes to Israel, things appear in black and white format. Theirs is a zero sum game.

It is a stark tragedy that, as of the moment, power is the deciding factor in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. For, as history teaches us, power has little regard for fairness, justice, morality, and decent futures. If you want insight into these sort of things you best consult the work of Susan Abulhawa, for you will not find them in the words of her critics.

Lawrence Davidson can be reached at: LDavidson@wcupa.edu

The article below by Michelle J. Kinnucan is reposted from Veterans Today.

[T]here is a powerful lobby determined to prevent any view other than its own from being aired, still less to factor in American understanding of trends and events in the Middle East. The tactics of the Israel Lobby plumb the depths of dishonor and indecency and include character assassination, selective misquotation, the willful distortion of the record, the fabrication of falsehoods, and an utter disregard for the truth. —from the withdrawal letter of Ambassador Charles W. Freeman, Jr.

Mainstream Jewish community organizations in Seattle plumbed the depths of dishonor this past week in a successful campaign to prevent a small fraction of the King County Metro Transit agency’s 1,200 buses from displaying ads saying “Israeli War Crimes, Your Tax Dollars at Work” (see photo at right). But the dishonor was not confined to the Jewish community, King County elected officials also sank low, caving to pressure and jettisoning the Constitution in just under seven days.

The chronology is short, but decidedly un-sweet: Last summer, inspired by a similar campaign in Albuquerque, some folks got together to form the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign (SMAC). In due time, they designed an ad, raised money, and signed a contract with Metro’s advertising agency.

The ads were set to run for four weeks on the sides of twelve Metro buses beginning on the second anniversary of the first day of the Hanukkah Massacre a.k.a. Operation Cast Lead, i.e. Israel’s three-week attack on Gaza. According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights the assault killed 1,417 Palestinians, a figure that included 926 civilians, of whom 313 were children.

A furor ensued when Seattle TV station KING 5 broke the story of the ads on Friday, December 17, 2010. The KING 5 report includes a segment featuring King County Metro spokesperson Linda Thielke saying: “We can’t reject it based on any reasons that we have established over the thirty-six years we’ve been accepting advertising.” In text accompanying the video report Thielke is quoted saying: “As a government, we are mindful of the provisions in state and federal constitutions to protect freedom of speech.”

Hilary Bernstein of the local office of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith (ADL) appears on camera protesting: “We’re really dismayed.” But, overall, so far, so good: The contract’s signed, the ADL complains, and the County stands firm on grounds of policy and freedom of speech. Case closed, right?

Wrong. By Monday, December 20, KING 5 was reporting: “There is so much outrage over a planned anti-Israel billboard campaign that Metro is now evaluating its advertising policies.” The report shows King County Councilmember Peter von Reichbauer asserting: “I know hate when I see it and a number of people in my community, a number of people in King County see hate in this advertisement.”

The story mentions several times that County attorneys agree the ads are protected under the First Amendment. Yet, von Reichbauer calls for Metro to hearken to the complaints of supporters of a foreign country and “reconsider” its decision to uphold freedom of speech.

In a letter to King County Executive Dow Constantine, von Reichbauer wrote:

”I received numerous expressions of concern over the weekend from many of King County residents over the proposed advertising on Metro buses referencing the state of Israel. … I ask the question why a public transportation system would advertise polarizing political statements. … I believe very strongly that dangerous language can create dangerous environments in a society. … this proposed bus advertising needs to be reviewed and reevaluated. For $1,800 [sic] on December 27, twelve buses will begin advertising material that can incite a ‘breach of public safety, peace and order.’ ”

A local news blog covered the story, reporting: ” ‘This material is directed at a group, and it’s insulting to that group,’ Von Reichbauer told PubliCola by phone this afternoon.” Echoing a hoax letter attributed to the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. von Reichbauer continues: ” ‘When you talk about Israel, you are talking about Jewish Americans. … King County should not provide a forum for a message of hate. … I think King County could have looked at its own language and considered whether this could create harm to’ Seattle’s Jewish community.”

Also on Monday, the city’s only major newspaper, the Seattle Times, reported:

“Richard Fruchter, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, said Metro shouldn’t have accepted the ad.

” ‘We certainly as an organization support the First Amendment right to free speech, but we feel that this violates Metro’s own policy that running ads shouldn’t insult specific groups’ to the point that public safety could be threatened, he said. ” ‘I think that this is an ad that’s designed to insult Israelis and the 50,000 members of the Jewish community, many of whom support Israel,’ Fruchter said.

“Metro policy bars advertising ‘so insulting, degrading or offensive as to be reasonably foreseeable that it will incite or produce imminent lawless action … .’ Metro was advised by the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office that the ad doesn’t violate that guideline, Thielke said.”

That same day, County Executive Dow Constantine began to crumble, calling “for a review of Metro Transit policies on non-commercial advertising that appears on buses.” However, his office’s press release still notes:

“Our state and federal constitutions protect speech, including unpopular speech, and limit a government’s ability to regulate advertising content.

“As a government agency, Metro Transit is more constrained than a private party, like a newspaper or TV station, in its ability to reject a particular advertisement. … “Having accepted non-commercial advertising generally since 1973, our attorneys have repeatedly advised that Metro is legally constrained in its ability to accept or reject an advertisement based on the identity of the group purchasing the advertising, or the message.”

That should have settled the matter. It didn’t.

The next day, Tuesday, Jewish Federation chief Richard Fruchter was on the local NPR flagship station, KUOW, calling for Metro to “decide not to run” the ad because he had heard “from so many Jewish community members that this is terribly upsetting to them and they really feel like this is an inciteful [sic] ad, an ad that’s designed with misinformation and is really very anti-Israel”. Then, Fruchter, like von Reichbauer before him (not quoted here), plays the Naveed Haq card.

In 2006, Naveed Haq shot six employees of the Jewish Federation in Seattle, killing one. To bolster his claim of danger to Jews, Fruchter dissembles about the role of the Jewish Federation: “Naveed Haq said, ‘I’m a Muslim-American and I’m angry at Israel.’ That’s why he attacked the Jewish Federation. Now, does that make any sense? No, it doesn’t. We’re not a political organization. We’re an organization that raises funds for Jewish social service and educational programs …”

So, Fruchter wants listeners to believe that Naveed Haq is evidence of a serious threat of incitement to violence against Jews posed by the SMAC ads; even though the SMAC ad makes no mention of Jews . And rhe truth is that the Jewish Federation is “a political organization” and aggressively supportive of Israel and its deadly military campaigns.

Just last month the “Consulate General of Israel to the Pacific Northwest [took] up temporary offices at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle … to provide consular services.” During Consul General Akiva Tor’s stay in Seattle he joined the Federation in its efforts to roll back the Olympia Food Co-op’s boycott of Israeli goods and advocate for a harder US line against Iran.

In late May of this year, the Federation expressed “its support of Madison Market for voting against the proposal” calling for a boycott of Israeli goods. Just a few days later, Israeli commandos killed nine unarmed human rights activists in international waters onboard the MV Mavi Marmara.

The very next day, the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle was operating as a full-fledged branch of the Israeli Ministry of Propaganda and calling on people to write letters-to-the-editor in support of Israel. The local federation branch also actively supports the Volunteers for Israel program that “helps place people on army bases helping in non-combat areas and in hospitals.”

The specific context of Naveed Haq’s 2006 shooting spree tells an even more compelling story. According to reports in the Mercer Island Reporter and Seattle Times, about 2,000 people gathered on July 23, 2006, at a local park to show “strong support for Israel” eleven days after Israel began its month-long “Operation Just Reward”. “The Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle organized the rally and “garnered 40 other sponsors of Jewish organizations, synagogues and businesses.”

Jewish Federation board chair Robin Boehler cheered the crowd on: “This event serves one purpose: to come together as a community to show support for Israel”. During the attack, Israeli forces turned Lebanon into a “free-fire zone,” as Kenneth Roth of Human Rights Watch put it. They also killed over a thousand Lebanese people–mostly civilians and about 30% children under the age of 13, according to UNICEF– injured thousands more and drove nearly a million people from their homes.

The pro-Israel rally occurred five days before Naveed Haq showed up with a gun at the Jewish Federation office. While it does not justify his criminal actions on July 28, 2006, it surely shows that Haq’s murderous rampage was not as senseless as Richard Fruchter would have us believe. Haq was incited by Israel’s deadly assault on Lebanon, an assault the Federation vociferously and publicly supported even as the slaughter continued with the assistance of US-provided bombs.

As Josh Feit and Brendan Kiley reported in The Stranger: “… Haq’s violence exploded inside a political context—the Jewish Federation, Israel’s war in Lebanon … Haq allegedly said. ‘I’m not upset at people. I’m upset at your foreign policy.’ ” As the prosecutor in Haq’s second trial said: “Naveed Haq wasn’t insane – just angry – when he stormed a Seattle Jewish center in 2006, killing one woman and wounding five others as he railed against Israel and demanded to go on CNN.” The day before Haq entered Jewish Federation offices in Seattle, Israel carried out air strikes all across Lebanon, killing numerous civilians.

The irony, of course, is that if Haq had seen ads like SMAC’s on buses, seen evidence that there was a vigorous, democratic national debate about US support of Israel then, just possibly, he may have been dissuaded from his deadly assault. What’s clear is that there’s no evidence that anything like a mere advertisement—and an “anti-Israel” ad at that—on the side of a bus inspired Haq or would inspire others today to attack local Jews or Jewish institutions.

To return to the recent bus ad chronology, a lot of other things happened on Tuesday. Pamela Geller and David Horowitz joined the fray with pro-Israel Metro bus ads. Geller’s Stop Islamization of America ad to read: “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Islamic jihad.” The David Horowitz Freedom Center ad was to say “Palestinian War Crimes, Your Tax Dollars at Work”.

Also Tuesday, another King County Council member betrayed his oath of office. In an e-mail Reagan Dunn confessed to asking Dow Constantine “to pull the ad”. Dunn found the “ad to be disgusting and hateful” and, invoking the Naveed Haq shooting, argued the ad was “designed” to “incite a ‘breach of public safety, peace and order.’ ”

J Street Seattle also weighed-in, calling on SMAC “to reconsider its advertising campaign” and claiming “The ads accuse Israel of utilizing U.S. aid to commit war crimes. This only serves to inflame tensions and promote division and confusion, rather than to point the way towards a productive resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

By Wednesday, December 22, the full court press was on. Senior County officials met with representatives from the Anti-Defamation League, StandWithUs, the American Jewish Committee, and the Jewish Federation, who “asked” them “to reconsider plans to put an ad on Metro buses alleging ‘Israeli war crimes,’ saying local Jews have good reason to fear it could lead to crimes against them.” In a post-meeting recap e-mail, AJC Regional Director Wendy Rosen wrote: “It is important to note that our community came together and spoke with one voice on this important issue”.

Although a spokesman for County Executive Constantine said “county officials didn’t change their early finding that the anti-Israel ad is consistent with Metro Transit advertising policies” he added, “We’re continually evaluating information as it comes in.” By then the writing was on the wall though, County officials had gotten the message, the First Amendment was roasted to a delicate crisp, and public officials were looking for the right words to cover a betrayal orchestrated by the local unregistered agents of a foreign government–the Jewish State of Israel.

On Thursday, less than a week after KING 5 broke the story, King County officials closed down a public forum because of the outcry of proponents of US aid to Israel and Israeli killing. They scrapped a free speech policy that had stood for 37 years and announced a “halt to the acceptance of any new non-commercial advertising.” In a nice Orwellian twist, the SMAC ad, which had already been accepted was described as “proposed” and then deftly rejected.

The reason for the about-face, according to Dow Constantine: “… a widespread and often vitriolic international debate introduces new and significant security concerns that compel reassessment … I have consulted with federal and local law enforcement authorities who have expressed concern, in the context of this international debate, that our public transportation system could be vulnerable to disruption.”

I opened this article with a quote from Ambassador Charles Freeman and I’ll close with one, too:

“When U.S. interrogators asked Khalid Sheikh Mohammed … why al Qa’ida had done the terrible things it did [on 9/11], he gave a straightforward answer. He said that the purpose was to focus ‘the American people . . . on the atrocities that America is committing by supporting Israel against the Palestinian people and America’s self-serving foreign policy that corrupts Arab governments and leads to further exploitation of the Arab Muslim people.‘ In Osama Bin Laden’s annual ‘address to the American people’ this September 11, he reiterated: ‘We have demonstrated and stated many times, for more than two-and-a-half-decades, that the cause of our disagreement with you is your support to your Israeli allies who occupy our land of Palestine …‘ ” [emphasis in original].

The Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign’s ads were a nonviolent attempt by people of conscience to tell Americans that US support of Israel is immoral and economically costly. That support, and the killing it enables, not our “democracy” or our “freedom,” also incites some people to violence.

As the blatant, ham-handed stifling of debate at the behest of the local Jewish community shows, support for Israel is also a real threat to the democracy and freedom here. Unfortunately, as Noam Chomsky noted in August: “… Jews in the US are the most privileged and influential part of the population. … Anti-Semitism is no longer a problem, fortunately. It’s raised, but it’s raised because privileged people want to make sure they have total control, not just 98% control. … they want to make sure there’s no critical look at the policies the US (and they themselves) support in the Middle East.”

Michelle J. Kinnucan is a US military veteran. Her writing has previously appeared in CommonDreams.org, Critical Moment, Palestine Chronicle, Arab American News, Electronic Intifada, Palestine Think Tank and elsewhere. Her 2004 investigative report on the Global Intelligence Working Group was featured in Censored 2005: The Top 25 Censored Stories (Seven Stories Pr., 2004) and she contributed a chapter to Finding the Force of the Star Wars Franchise (Peter Lang, 2006). Click here for her contact information.

JWPF Welcomes New Year

Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends welcomed in the new year by placing nine dedicated peace activists at our non-violent, silent vigils in front of Beth Israel Congregation, one of the local centers of nationalist support of the state of Israel. We note two other active street protest groups and hope that Ann Arbor’s two mainstream groups – Michigan PeaceWorks and the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice – will start some of their own in 2011.

Jawaher Abu Rahme Memorialized at Ann Arbor City Council

Members of Ann Arbor City Council were informed of the death of Jawaher Abu Rahme, who was killed by the Israeli Defense Forces in her home village of Bi’lin. All in attendance were invited to remember Jawaher this Saturday, and every Saturday at Beth Israel Congregation. A video transcript of the presentation to Council is found here. Please advance to 00:30:35 to view. The written transcript is listed after signature.

Coexist – A Message of Distortion

One popular sticker adorning American cars is a stylized rendition of “Coexist”. The sticker features a crescent moon and star representing Islam, a hexagram/”Star of David” representing Judaism, and a cross representing Christianity. While on the surface it appears to be a peaceful message, it can further misunderstanding, whether intentionally or not.

In the case of Israel’s ongoing conquest of Palestine, “Coexist” can strengthen the notion that the problem is simply an inability of the parties involved to get along with each other. Like observing two children squabbling during kindergarten recess, we are unable and unwilling to understand the cause of their struggle. We see the disagreement from afar, and just want it to end. So we say “Can’t you children just get along?” and hope they heed our advice.

The fact that a Jew and a Palestinian can get along is well documented. Elias Chacour’s Mar Elias schools in Ibillin, the Neve Shalom / Wahat al Salam village in Palestine, as well as so-called “dialogue groups” here in the U.S. are examples; others abound. Getting along is not the issue.

The cause of discontent – to use the mildest of descriptors – in Palestine is far from a simple failure to get along. The cause is rooted in the ideology of Zionism, which argues Jewish supremacy in Palestine and has supported violent land theft and appropriation for over 62 years. Palestinian resistance to this oppression, supported by a vast media campaign and funding from the world’s single superpower, is solely a reaction to this physical onslaught.

Stopping Zionism and stopping Jewish aggression will thereby free Palestinians from the Apartheid conditions they face. These are the core issues that need to be discussed, not camouflaged by misleading words like “Coexist”, which serve only to undermine true understanding and appreciation of the issue. Bumper stickers deliver short messages, to be sure. “Boycott Israel”, or “Stop U.S. Aid to Israel” are also short but deliver a more direct and truthful message.

“Coexist” is faulty, perhaps by design, and portrays a false picture of reality in Palestine. It does not address ways towards a just solution, nor does it hold the guilty parties accountable. It is a diversion, and should be rebutted by Palestinian solidarity activists, not slapped on the bumpers of their cars.

Reminder: Freedom of Religion Day

Jessica Sitek of the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice reminds everyone to attend a “Religious Freedom Day” event on Thursday January 13th at the Ann Arbor District Library, Main Branch, 7:00 PM. This panel discussion is titled, “Flashpoints and Controversies On Religious Freedom”. See you there.

End Jewish Supremacism in Palestine
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friend
Comments on this report? Submit them @ https://blog.deiryassin.org/?p=391

Public Commentary to Ann Arbor City Council
January 3, 2011

Good Evening,

In June of 2009, I spoke to you about a Palestinian peace activist who was killed by a member of the Israeli Defense Force. Basem Abu Rahme [RACH muh] was killed when a high velocity tear gas canister was fired into his chest. He died almost immediately. Here is the photo of Basem and myself, taken almost five years ago in the village he was defending, the village of Bi’lin.

Today I sadly stand before you to tell the news that last Friday his sister – Jawaher [zsh-WAH-her] – was heavily tear gassed, collapsed onto the ground, and was rushed to the hospital in Ramallah, suffering from extreme asphyxiation. She died as a result on New Year’s Day.

According to well-known peace activist and Genetics Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh, the gas used was a highly toxic one, “a much stronger version with unknown chemicals than used in the West”

Like her brother we will never know the identity of the person who killed her. But that’s the modus operandi of this Jewish state in Palestine: they do what they want, and tell the world to mind its own business. Simply put, they act as gangsters.

And if we in America coldheartedly think – well, those victims weren’t US citizens, so it’s not our concern – what about when it IS our concern… like when an IDF bulldozer operator crushed to death Rachel Corrie from Olympia, Washington? No US investigation, no compensation demanded, not even a mention of a foreign government killing an American citizen.

Imagine what would happen if North Korea killed an American citizen?

No, Rachel’s parents are currently in civil court in Haifa, suing the state of Israel for a symbolic one dollar. And they are getting the same gangster rush, the murderer protected from even showing his face to the parents of the daughter he killed.

Jawaher becomes the first martyr in Palestine for this year. Yet searching for her name in the New York Times produces no results. Our media is tightly controlled when it comes to identifying Israeli war crimes.

So we will use our own media and our own first amendment rights. We will remember Jawaher on Saturday morning at Beth Israel Congregation and invite all here to join with us. Let’s end Zionism in our time.

Thank you

AAPER Rhymes with Vapor

Vigil Supporter R writes that he planned to assist the American Association for Palestinian Equal Rights (AAPER) in setting up a chapter in his home state. This announcement set our WOLZA (Watch Out! Liberal Zionist Ahead) antennae a-quivering, and we sent R some literature from AAPER’s own website: specifically, that we could not find any reference to Palestinians’ right to return to the homes they were violently displaced from since Plan Dalet was initiated in December, 1947.

Any group that focuses on equal rights – as AAPER claims – would be expected to firmly embrace this bedrock principle, found in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But in our attempt to embrace what we expected, our arms will filled only with the vapor of the promise of equal rights.

So R contacted some AAPER folk in Washington, DC, and Virginia* replied almost immediately to assure R that AAPER was the real deal: “Right of Return – we definitely support it, specifically, as a basic right of the Palestinians. Simple.”

Well, yes, it’s simple. And would have been simple to include it as one of AAPER’s mission points. The problem is, it’s not. The vapor of ROR is there, but no substance. So taking Virginia up on her offer that she’d be “happy to answer additional questions you have as well”, we asked her if Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state and if so, by what right?

This simple yes-or-no-question caused (a) a week’s delay in response time, (b) some gentle reminders from R to please address the question, and (c) the personal insult card played by Virginia – she felt “essentially threatened”. And lest readers think we pick on well-meaning spokespersons, we only describe the insult card as an learning opportunity: knowing ahead of time of such tactics can prepare the peace activist for the tools needed to forge ahead. To her credit, Virginia did her best to put a good face on AAPER, but was unable to convince.

AAPER does not support Right of Return, does not boycott businesses which support Israel, does not challenge Israel’s claimed right to exist as a Jewish state, but does support international law insofar as it sanctions a Jewish state on 78% of Palestine. AAPER should rail against such an attack on human rights, not be proud to support it. Like any peace group truly committed to solidarity with Palestinians, and dedicated to “equal rights” for all, AAPER needs to be working towards dismantling a Jewish state, not supporting one. Such an honest position would make Virginia’s life a whole lot easier.

But it’s not, and Virginia is left scrambling for damage control, when she should be proud to be part of an organization that leads the way for true justice for Palestine. We expressed hope that AAPER would change, and offered to temper future criticisms accordingly.

Guest Celebrity Vigiler on Christmas

Now, who would be more a perfect celebrity than Santa Claus himself to make an appearance at our Saturday vigil on Christmas morning? Yes, Saint Nicholas flew by in his red (and gray) sleigh and stopped by to stand tall for Jesus, one of the original Palestinians. Here he is, pictured with one of Santa’s little helpers. And you know, if Santa is on your side, standing up to Zionism just must be a good thing:

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hersko/Photos/Santa%20with%20Helper.JPG

Seattle Bus Ad Campaign

Last week we spotlighted the power of the Seattle (WA) Jewish community when they “came together” to intimidate governmental agencies to censor free speech. This week we provide support for those claims by linking you to one of the best researched- and written articles about the subject. Check out this former Ann Arbor-ite’s skills here.

Six Vigilers
No Right of Return – No Peace
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friend
Comments on this report? Submit them @ https://blog.deiryassin.org/?p=385

* name change, to protect future allies